SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter on Sunday that SpaceX may begin the next test flight of its Mars rocket ship prototype this week.
He tweeted about the ignition test and the planned schedule: "Tomorrow is just a static ignition. The flight test may not be earlier than Wednesday."
SpaceX is trying to develop a "Starship", the spacecraft Designed to bring dozens of people to long-range flights so that it may colonize Mars. According to the SpaceX website, Starship will become "the most powerful launch vehicle developed in the world". SpaceX's Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rockets (collectively called Starship) represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to transport crews and cargo to Earth orbit, the moon, Mars and other places. The interplanetary spacecraft will become the most powerful launch vehicle ever, capable of carrying more than 100 metric tons of satellites into earth orbit.
The starship prototype sequence Number 8 (or SN8) will try to reach an altitude of about 50,000 feet.
SpaceX plans to launch the prototype of its Mars rocket spacecraft into the air hundreds of feet high. Like the first successful test flight, landing upright. The August flight of
SN5 lasted only 45 seconds and reached only 500 feet near Brownsville in southeastern Texas, but it was an important beginning for SpaceX's Starship. Because some of the previous tests exploded during the landing and recovery.
"Mars looks more and more real," Musk tweeted afterwards. "Progress is accelerating."
Musk said that before the test version of the "interstellar spacecraft" achieves high-altitude flight and landing, several more short takeoffs and landings are planned. The latest test model is relatively simple: it can be 100 feet high, similar to a steel silo (or a protruding tank), with a lid on top. The private company
plans to launch a reusable interstellar spacecraft with a rocket that is still under development to transport cargo or people to low Earth orbit, the moon and Musk's most desired destination-Mars. Looking forward to another great moment for SpaceX.
